GasBuddy News Article

iol motoring
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Industry has been eyeing hydrogen for decades as a source of automotive energy, because the gas produces no fossil-fuel-type emissions when it is burned in fuel cells.

Water vapour issuing from the exhaust pipe is the sole sign of activity inside the cells as they quietly convert chemical energy into electricity.

That power then drives electric motors, often mounted on the wheel hub at the ends of the axles, to provide motion. Hydrogen propulsion has the edge over the all-electric solutions currently being tried out, and in the end it may outlive them all.

The technology has so far found its way into some expensive buses and forklift trucks, but no hydrogen-powered car has gone on sale despite the collective efforts of Honda, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Opel to develop one.

Hydrogen isn't that expensive. With a kg of H2 costing anywhere between $2 and $10 (depending on method of production) and containing 141MJ of energy, it would be like paying 0.60-2.65$/gal for gas in a car that gets 25% efficiency, assuming the FV vehicle is 90% efficient. The problem is the cost of the fuel cells.

The fuel cell will work. It is an older technology. Burning straight Hydrogen is used by the space program only and that will be the great part of the hydrogen revolution once storing the fuel is accomplished.

I love how over 3/4 of this article extols the good points of a hydrogen-fueled car, such as "because the gas produces no fossil-fuel-type emissions when it is burned in fuel cells."Yeah? What about the energy consumed in producing the hydrogen? How about the energy consumed in producing the tanks and parts necessary to make this work in a car? Ahhh... not as green as made out to be.I do think this concept has more potential than a battery-powered EV, but when the car can be bought for $20,000, can run 300 or more miles on a fill-up, there are an abundance of hydrogen filling stations, and it only costs $30 to fill 'er up, THEN it will sell like hotcakes.

A fuel cell powered EV is what I would wait for. The battery powered cars will never have the range we would expect and with the recent problems Boeing is having with their LI-Ion batteries, I'm not going there either.